Of Life and Dreams
by Bae.Moon
Summary: Amu is a aspiring teacher who has lost her path to her dreams. Ikuto is a rebellious musician from a power crazed family looking to make a name for himself in an industry where that's nearly impossible. Will they be able to achieve their dreams...or get lost in the process? - Amuto Story
1. Chapter 1

As Amu closed her apartment door and bolted it shut, she sighed. Life was not going as she'd planned these days.

She looked at her fish, Nom, and gently tapped the glass tank that was his entire world. Unfortunately Nom, like most other fish in the universe, only did very simple things; eat, sleep, and bulge his eyes every once in a while.

She opened her old white fridge and took out a glass jug of milk, and chugged it. _That's one of the benefits to living by yourself,_ she thought, _you can chug_. But she had a feeling her chugging days were coming to an end.

She was already behind on her rent and money was short...either she was giving up chugging and getting a roommate or she was getting evicted. And if she got evicted she would have to live with her parents, and she had a feeling they wouldn't support Nom's eating habits for long. Fish food cost.

Anyway she didn't want to impose on them. Her sister had just entered high school and her father had gotten sick, they didn't need more bills to pay or another mouth to feed.

She flopped onto her old couch and looked at the list of potential roommates she would be interviewing the next day.

When she was done cleaning Amu realized just how little possessions she really had, it made her apartment look huge.

And in reality it was, she'd gotten an excellent deal. Her landlady was an old eccentric who wanted to spend what little time she had left on this planet traveling the world. She'd said she only needed the money to fund her trip, so Amu could have the entire 2 room, living room, dining room, plus bathroom and utilities included for $600 a month.

She could have been living in a college dorm paying half the rent she was now but Amu had never really been a people person, she found it hard to be herself around them, even her family. So she sought out somewhere else.

She changed into her least ripped jeans and a black and pink striped t-shirt just in time for the first person to ring the doorbell.

It was disastrous.

The first person was a creep.  
The second was a neat freak.  
The third was a druggie.  
The fourth was didn't speak Japanese.  
And so on...

She had given up about an hour beforehand, when she heard a knock on the door. She opened it to a tall, dark-haired, blue eyed, man in his early 20's.

A "Roommate Wanted" add had somehow managed to find itself into Ikuto's bag and he'd decided to check it out, never thinking that anything would come from it.

But when he saw the apartment, he knew that it would be perfect for him. It had big windows, wood paneled walls, red brick floor and a lot of open space.

The was something about that girl, Hinamori Amu, that made it seem as though he could have told her the truth about his needing not to live with his family or in a dorm and she would have understood. But he could trust anyone with that secret.

His family was the proprietor of a huge and well-established company in Japan, and now that Ikuto had come of age they wanted him to go and study economics so that he could run the business.

Ikuto had rebelled against the plan; he wasn't the kind of person who could be confined to a office. So his family had given him four years to study music in college. Four years to become famous and prove he could make his own name in the world without family back up. They would pay for his studies, but he had to handle everything else.

It had all happened very fast really, he was still having a hard time believing it wasn't a dream.

So, a week later, when Ikuto was laying in bed the night before the first day of the term and was thinking over the last few days he'd spent in the apartment, he couldn't figure out how he'd gotten from his privileged caged home, to living, free, in an apartment with a pink haired girl named Amu.


	2. Chapter 2

When Ikuto woke up, Amu was already gone. _It's sinful to wake up that early, _Ikuto thought, as he got ready for the day.

She'd left fried eggs along with some rice on the stove and Ikuto couldn't help thinking how convenient living with her was. Good food and cheap rent, and not half bad company either. It's too bad she hadn't stayed longer, though…he would have offered her a ride.

Ikuto had been riding his motorcycle for no more than ten minutes when he caught a flash of pink in his peripheral vision. Ikuto made an illegal u-turn and pulled up to a very surprised Amu

"Ikuto-san?"

"You want a ride?" he said, holding out a helmet, "Unless you're scared…"

_Yes, I'm terrified!_

"Of coarse not." Amu said, feigning boredom. Ikuto patted the seat behind him.

"Get on." And after a moment of hesitation, she did, fastening her helmet as she mounted and wrapping her arms around Ikuto's waist.

Tadase and Kukai were just getting out of Tadase's car when a motorcycle pulled up next to them.

"Is that Hinamori?"

"Yeah, that's her"

"Who's that with her?"

Amu really wished everyone would stop looking at them; motorcycles really weren't _that_ unusual in Japan. She looked to her left and noticed even Tadase, Mr. High-School Prince, was looking at them. Amu turned towards Ikuto.

"Thanks for the ride, it was fun." she said and walked away as the crowd parted for her to pass through.

"Your step-father gave me very explicit instructions, Ikuto-kun." Said the Chairman. "You are being assigned an extremely trusted member of the student board to be your guide and companion during your time at the school. They will take most of their classes with you, with the exception of your music courses."

"My companion?" _My jailer_.

"Yes, speaking of which…" There was a knock on the door, "Yes please come in Hinamori-san"

_Hinamori? It couldn't be…? _

Amu entered the room.

"Ikuto-kun, this is Hinamori Amu. Hinamori-san this is Tsukiyomi Ikuto…your new charge."

Amu looked a little shocked…and Ikuto was panicking. He sent Amu a look that hopefully conveyed: _Don't tell him anything._ A look of understanding appeared on Amu's face and she bowed slightly, smiling a little. When she straightened again she extended her hand and said "Pleased to meet you, Tsukiyomi-san. And welcome to the university."

Ikuto smiled crookedly and said, "The pleasure's mine, and call me Ikuto"

_Ikuto had been pleasant enough company_, Amu thought. She couldn't seem to figure out why he hadn't wanted her to tell the chairman that they already knew each other, or that they lived together. But Ikuto's secrets were his own; and she wasn't going to press him about it.

When they entered the classroom everyone stared, they normally did when Amu came around.

She was often reminded on a daily basis of her 'Cool and Spicy' demeanor, everyone had convinced themselves that she was unapproachable, and they treated her with a kind of barely concealed awe. Amu wasn't sure what they saw in her – everyone seemed to know who she was, even though she didn't. And it had been that way ever since she was little.

But this time it was different, because they weren't just staring at Amu, they were staring at Ikuto too.

Amu decided to ignore them, and took him by the hand and dragged him to the seat next to hers, frowning slightly along the way.


End file.
